Its the only material thats keeping you away from the road, and its never a good idea to compromise on your tyres. You may opt for cheaper plugs, or cheaper wiper blades, BUT never compromise on the quality of tyres especially when you're already talking of "WOOZT handling at SPEED".

I never cut corners on tyres, so to speak, and even if its not Michelin - you could always get other makes that pulls through on the sturdiness at speeds albeit a little noisy or hard. It doesn't matter on comfort as long as it won't fail you. But I budget myself to go the extra mile for the comfort ride and thus invest in a little more than I should.